Monday, February 4, 2013

Graham Crackers

It has recently come to my attention that I need to step up my game when it comes to snacks.

I always have plain cheerios for Natalie when we're out and about. They're somewhat nutritious, not that messy and keep well in a plastic bag. Lately, when we are around other kids, she is a total mooch. She goes after all the other kid's snacks, to the degree that I feel like I need to write a check to the other moms for all the stolen raisins, pretzels and crackers. Also, Cheerios are no longer exciting enough to keep Natalie's attention in church, where she is experimenting with Sacrament-meeting-fit-pitchin'. She liked graham crackers the last time that I bought them, but let's be honest- graham crackers are just cookies, loaded with sugar. So I thought that I would try making some, so that I could cut the sugar down. I have tried this Smitten Kitchen recipe twice before with varied results. This time, I followed the directions perfectly and, though the prescribed baking time turned out to be waaaay too long, the second and third batches turned out fine.

Though, I'm not entirely convinced that these are worth making. The dough is unbelievably sticky. Imagine trying to roll and cut cookies out of toothpaste. In fact, once I began rolling these, I ran out of flour for the counter and rolling pin and had to leave the dough in the fridge for a few days until I bought more flour. It's painstaking to try to cut them neatly, let alone uniformally. I was conciously telling myself the whole time, "Natalie is only 13 months old. It's okay if they look like crap." Still, it's such a dagger to my pride to waste an hour and a half cutting cookies that look as if they were created by a kindergartener. They are good. Have the taste and crunch of graham crachers, get fabulously soggy in milk and Natalie's a fan (though her attention wavers slightly once she has licked off the cinnimon sugar topping).

Natalie has been sleeping much better in the past week. We decided that we are done getting up with her, so she's quickly learning that there is no longer any use carrying on: Mom and Dad are not going to come and feed me and/or rock me back to sleep. She wakes up, cries for a little bit, then goes back to sleep. After 6, she gets a bottle and some snuggles and, on lucky mornings, falls back asleep in our bed for a little longer. Finally! A hope for decent sleep!